the regain question that gets asked weekly, answered properly
the regain question that gets asked weekly, answered properly — a position I have arrived at slowly and would like tested.
Regained most of it over a year and spent that year assuming it was my fault. It was not; it is what the literature describes.
Stopped abruptly once and gradually once. The gradual one was easier to interpret because I could see what was changing.
Had the conversation with a clinician before stopping rather than after. Considerably easier that way round.
Corrections welcome, especially the pedantic ones. Pedantry is how this board earns its reputation.
best — the order this archive was captured in
Appetite is the proximal effect and weight is the lagging integrated outcome, which is why watching appetite gives you an earlier and more honest signal.
Why the first fortnight tells you nothing.
With a week-long half-life, exposure declines over several weeks after a final dose rather than ending with it. So the first two weeks after stopping are still a tail of the previous state, and the stability people report in that window is not evidence about the months after it.
The reports here are fairly consistent: appetite noticeably different somewhere in the second month, weight following later, and the trajectory strongly influenced by whether the habits from the losing phase survived. That is not a prediction for anybody in particular, and it is not a schedule — it is the shape of what members describe, which is the most this board can honestly offer.
Careful — interval stretching and dose reduction are different interventions and your post uses them interchangeably.
have the conversation with a clinician before, not after
Correction: that study measured regain after discontinuation, not loss of effect during treatment. Very different findings.
Edited a comment framing regain as a moral failure. The documented outcome is not a character verdict.
stopping is a plan, not an event
Small fix — you have described interval stretching and called it a taper. The exposure profiles differ.
That is a pause rather than a stop, and the plans for the two are not the same.
Correcting myself upthread: appetite returned at week 8 for me, not the week I posted.
decide what you are watching for before you stop
That reads as advice to stop, which is not something anyone here should be offering.
write down where you are before you change anything
- 1stopping is a plan, not an event7 comments in this branch · started by u/elin_varga